Apple Excludes Samsung from Chip Development Project: The report indicates that Samsung has invested heavily in their Chip business and losing Apple will be a big blow.
Koreatimes is reporting that Apple has finally excluded Samsung, the Korean Electronic giant, from the A7 Chip production. The A7 is set to be used in Apple’s upcoming devices this year.
“Apple has been paying billions of dollars to Samsung to use the latter’s application processors in its i-devices,” Kim Yoo-chul reports for the Koreatimes. “Amid sluggish demand for conventional chips hit by poor sales of personal computers, Apple’s orders were a big help in lifting Samsung’s semiconductor business.”
The report indicates that Samung has invested heavily in their Chip business and losing Apple will be a big blow. However, officials are optimistic that Samsung Electronic Division (manufacturer of smartphone, TV, PC etc) and NVIDIA will pick up much of the slack, according to the report.
”If Samsung fails to win Apple orders for A7 chips, then some of Samsung’s system chip-manufacturing lines will be stopped. That’s a scenario Samsung really doesn’t want to see,’’ said the official (via Koreatimes). “The company is injecting more resources to satisfy NVIDIA’s stiffer requirements for graphic chips on a contract basis to minimize the impact.”
This news is certainly not a surprise given that Samsung has become Apple’s biggest competitor in the smartphone market.